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Painting deeps & supers

Would it be alright for me to paint my deeps and supers? I'm using marine plywood to construct my hive and to further protect it from the elements, I'm going to paint it with a waterproof coat of paint. Should there be anything in the paint I should look out for?

Re: Painting deeps & supers

Painting the outside of the hives is fine and recommended. I would also paint the edges of the plywood. Painting the inside of the hive is generally frowned upon.

If you are going to use plywood, before painting I would mix up a batch of diluted Titebond glue to the consistency of paint, and brush it onto the edges of the cut plywood to seal the edge, instead of paint there.

Re: Painting deeps & supers

Originally Posted by Rader Sidetrack

Painting the outside of the hives is fine and recommended. I would also paint the edges of the plywood. Painting the inside of the hive is generally frowned upon.

If you are going to use plywood, before painting I would mix up a batch of diluted Titebond glue to the consistency of paint, and brush it onto the edges of the cut plywood to seal the edge, instead of paint there.

Re: Painting deeps & supers

As already stated, only paint the outsides. Don't paint the top or bottom edges or on hot summer days, they will stick together. If you paint the insides, the bees will cover it with propolis....a waste of time and energy for the bees. The best paint that I've found is "Behr Barn and Fence Paint." Use white or light colors to reflect the heat of the summer months.

On my English Garden Hive, I used a nice wood stain with 4 coats of varnish.

Re: Painting deeps & supers

The bees will coat the inside of the hive with propolis painted to not, that's why you shouldn't paint it -- the bees will do it for you. They will decide how water-proof they want the wood.

Peter

I would paint the INSIDE as well - the Philippines is hot AND humid and any timber product in such a climate will last longer if painted really well.
We paint boxes inside and outside here in the subtropics.

Re: Painting deeps & supers

Sorry I missed the location! Yes, a good idea to paint the entire box. You can rub talcum powder on the top and bottom edges, this will help keep them from sticking together.

Freezing a paint brush is a great way to keep it from setting up between paint jobs. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put in a ziplock bag, should last for months. Just thaw a bit before using again, and make sure you use it in the same paint or wash it out first.

While this will also work for alkyd paints, it's best for use with latex paints. The paint is suspended in water, and the water keeps the polymerization inhibitor from evaporating (it's usually butyl alcohol, I think). So long as the paint contains water, it will not polymerize, freezing keeps the water from evaporating.

Best if you use the spare fridge, though -- you might not want a paint thinner flavored steak.

Re: Painting deeps & supers

I assumed painting the outside a light color was to reflect/absorb less heat and to make the wood last longer, but as I go through site after site trying to determine where I'll buy my first hive, I'm torn trying to decide whether to buy painted, unpainted, paint later, varnish later, leave natural, etc...

Will I have better luck with a specific type? Are there certain colors or materials you absolutely shouldn't use that'll make my girls hate me?

Re: Painting deeps & supers

I paint my home hives white. It's traditional and it matches my house. I have some hives in yards where I don't want them to be easily seen. Those hives are green. When I feed, I use gallon paint cans on top of the inner cover. I put an old deep painted red around the feeder can. When I look into a yard, I can tell right away which hives are being fed. Helps my bad memory. I wouldn't fret too much about the color. Here in New England we get lots of different weather so I like paint. Plenty of folks don't paint at all and do fine but I think the paint helps with marginal wood or a marginal fit to the joints. I very much prefer oil base at least for the primer even though oil based paints today can't hold a candle to the good stuff that they don't make any longer. When I do use latex is for topcoat only and even then the latex boxes don't last as long as my oil painted boxes. Same experience on the house and the barn. I don't paint the inside unless I suspect disease. Then, I clean the box, sand it down and paint all the surfaces. Don't know how much it really helps but it makes me feel better. I use pine for wood but have used cypress and plywood. They're all fine but I make my own boxes now and pine is easy to get. If I were you, I'd buy reasonably priced woodenware and just decide how you want it to look. Any method will be fine with the bees. Heck you could decorate them if you wanted. I've seen camo boxes made up by folks. Met a guy last year who painted them to look like a brick wall (nope....I don't know why, he just wanted me to capture his swarms). As an aside, my absolute favorite boxes are homemade nucs (pine) that were stained natural and then finished with multiple coats of exterior poly. They look real cool being able to see the wood grain, etc., and they've held up nicely to all that our climate has to offer, even show. Bottom line, it's probably more about what you like than what will matter to the bees. Have fun (which I think is something that many of us don't do enough when we keep bees).

Last edited by Ravenseye; 01-05-2013 at 06:33 AM.
Reason: Clarification

"My wife always wanted girls. Just not thousands and thousands of them......"

Re: Painting deeps & supers

Circ,
You will get varying answers to your question. The white paint is to reflect heat and keep the hive cooler. You are in Texas so I imagine it gets pretty warm down there.
Myself, I'd buy the unpainted, assemble yourself hive. Then assemble, prime and paint for the total experience.

FYI, as an experiment, I purposely did not paint one hive (pine) and placed it next to a painted hive. Within two months, that unpainted hive warped until the corners opened up and started to turn grey. Needless to say it's now fixed and painted.